Saturday, August 11, 2012

Badminton Racket First Impressions: Li-Ning N90

I've heard warnings from reviews and comments on the blog that this racket was hard to tame. It's as stiff as they come, and the head's just really heavy.

I've had experiences with overly head-heavy rackets before, and those didn't turn out well. Maybe that's why I've been staying away from the N90 for so long. That, and because the color scheme just really isn't that exciting.

So Lin Dan won the Olympics, and I thought I'd celebrate with a small racket purchase :)

And off to the courts we went this morning with the new racket in hand, ready with the restraints on the wrist hoping that the weight won't break it when I smash.

But it turned out to be a really good experience!

The Li-Ning N90 somehow managed to turn the really stiff shaft into a reasonably agile one. I was able to twist and turn the racket around to cope with defending and placement.

That trait caught me off guard as I was expecting a very hard time taming the racket.

Attacks were strong right off the bat, even the slight check smash could yield a respectable speed. Not once did the stiffness of the shaft affect the quality of my attack.

Until we got to the backhand!

One would really need a good technique to carry a good backhand from the Li-Ning N90. If you know what a panhandle grip is, you'd want to use that with a proper supination technique and adjust the angle. That will give you a better grip on the racket as the very stiff shaft will tend to wander off your palm on backhands.

Short from the minor setback of the backhand, the N90 performs superbly. I will provide a review soon.